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26 Jul 2009

I still haven't eaten my way through the last batch of jam I made and here I am, making more. Not that I'm complaining, I love jam. It has so many delicious uses. Bake it into cupcakes, slather it on toast, dollop it in a huge bowl of steaming rice pudding or use it to fill cookies. Since I have a cupboard full of jam, I chose the latter as a way of using some of it up. I've never made linzer cookies before but darn it, it sure won't be the last time!

The jam was super easy to make, the apple provided a natural source of pectin so there was no need for preserving sugar, which I believe to be a little too sweet. The citrus provided such a lovely tang to balance the sweetness of the strawberries. Delicious! Thank you to Margot of Effort to Deliciousness for selecting this beautiful recipe and as always, check out the other SMS ladies for more jammy goodness.

Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg yolks and mix thoroughly. Gradually add the flour and ground almonds. Lightly knead the mixture until it comes together in a ball. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/gas 5. Roll the dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin on a lightly floured surface and stamp out biscuits using a 6-7cm cutter. Reshape leftover dough into a ball, re-roll and cut out more biscuits. Stamp out a smaller circle from the middles of half the biscuits.

Put the biscuits on lined baking sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. You may need to do these in batches. Rest for a minute then transfer to a cooling rack. When completely cold, spread the whole biscuits with either jam. Dust the ring-shaped biscuits with icing sugar. Put a sugar-dusted ring on top of a jam-covered biscuit and press lightly together.

Oh, and I almost forgot to add. This is my first Sweet Melissa Sunday post as a graduate. Yup, I'm now Katie Deacon BA (hons). Hurrah, although I found the fact I graduated in gryffindor colours far more exciting than actually graduating! (also, please excuse my hair, it was raining awfully heavy on graduation day!)

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comments:

Love the bright red color of your jam. And the cookies look delicious. Absolutely love the shape of the cookies (like the pointy ends the petals). Don't think I've ever seen a cookie cutter that does that. Very pretty. Great job!

Thanks for preserving with me this week, despite the surplus of jam in your cupboard. I had so much fun making preserves, I am going to have trouble resisting making more. Your preserves look great and those cookies are just darling. And a big congratulations on your graduation!

What a wonderful shape for the cookie! Much better than the simple old round ones. And what is it about rain and graduation days! With the exception of high school, it has poured at every single graduation I've ever been in.

My goodness, those cookies are just GORGEOUS! I made linzer cookies in the shape of hearts this past Valentine's Day and they were a big hit! I'm so glad you enjoyed them, and the delicious jam, as well. Mazel Tov (Congratulations) on your graduation- that's a wonderful accomplishment! Hope to talk to you again soon :)